Good Ol' American Apple Pie

Slice of Apple Pie!

Ok... I usually (and by usually I mean ~80-90% of the time) eat vegan. When I don't eat vegan, I'm particular about where my meat and dairy come from. My man wanted me to make him an apple pie for Memorial Day weekend (yes... I'm finally getting around to publishing the post now - chaos!). Anyway, I decided to use up some lard (yep... lard) that I had in the pantry wrapped up for eons to make the crust. I wish I could deny, but its the best damn crust I've ever had. Along w/ the crust, I came across a recommendation to utilize more than one type of apple in the pie. I always thought it was a "must" to use Granny Smith only in the pie filling. Not to knock Granny... she is wonderful; however, I have come to find that adding a different type of apple is just what the filling needed to stand out.

On to the important part:
Good Ol' American Apple Pie

The Ingredients:

Crust (makes enough for base and covering of filling):
2 C White All Purpose Flour
1 tsp NaCl
3 tbsp Sugar
6 tbsp Butter (cut into small chunks)
6 tbsp Lard (cut into small chunks)
6 tbsp Ice Cold Water

Pie Filling:
2 Granny Smith
2 Red Delicious
2 Pink Lady
3/4 C Sugar
2 tbsp Flour
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 tsp NaCl
1 tbsp Cider Vinegar

What To Do:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Crust:
When you cut up the butter and lard in the chunks, it helps to chill them first in the freezer.  Use your own judgment here.  It can't hurt if its in for a bit.  I'd say give it ~ 10-15 minutes in there if was at room T to begin with.
Mix all of the dry ingredients together in a bowl.
Using your hands, mix in the chunks of butter and lard.  Break up the bits of butter and lard into even smaller chunks and keep incorporating into the dry ingredients until well mixed into a crumbly mass (you decide how crumbly).
Place in freezer about ~ 10 minutes. 
Take out of freezer and make a well in the center of the crumbly mass and add the 6 tbsp water.  With the back end of a fork, work from the outside in to mix your crumbly mass with your water.  Only do this enough to form a dough ball.  DON'T OVERMIX or you won't have the flakiness.  Cut the dough in 1/2, roll in balls, place in plastic wrap, and put back in the freezer while you make your filling.

Filling:
Place a bowl of cold water w/ a couple of tbsp of lemon juice close by.
Peel and slice the apples.  Add the apples to the lemon/water so they don't oxidize and turn brown (this isn't critical).
Drain the lemon/water from the apples when finished cutting and peeling them all.
Add the rest of the filling ingredients together with the apples and mix well.  Set aside.
Butter the bottom and sides of a pie pan (I used a glass one).
Take one of your dough balls out of the freezer and roll out to form your bottom pie crust.  I left hunks of butter and lard.  I did not get all of my pieces "pea size" as is usually recommended - up to you.  Place rolled dough in your pie pan, poke some holes in the bottom w/ a fork, cut extra dough off, crimp sides or press down with a fork, and fill with your apple filling.
Place in freezer for ~ 5 minutes.
Remove other dough ball from freezer, roll out as above, and place on the pie.  Cut excess dough off and crimp/press edges to seal.  Cut or poke some holes/lines in the top of your crust.
Place pie in the freezer for ~ 5 minutes.
Brush top of the dough w/ some butter and sprinkle w/ cinnamon and sugar if you prefer.
Bake for 1 hour at 400 degrees.
Let pie sit for about 1/2 an hour before you cut and serve.  If not, you will have filling juice running rampant.  This pie is better warm or refrigerator cold.  Piping hot doesn't allow the juices to set.

Finally - after all of that - dig in!

The whole pie w/ its mountainous crust!

My Thoughts:

Goals for the future regarding the crust:
1) Must get organic and/or local farm lard (I used the last of the pantry stuff I had and it probably came from a massive feedlot pig - not where I want my critters to come from).
2) Ditto on the butter.
3) Try to veganize the crust and see if it even comes close.

As stated above, try different apple types. Ensure that you have at least one "cooking/tart" apple like Granny, but feel free to put in one or two other "mushy" ones. They won't bake up mushy, but they give a softer texture and sweeter taste.

For years I always made the pie crust in one shot on the counter and then put the filling in and baked immediately. I decided to go through the freezing stages indicated above and I really believe that this (along w/ the lard addition) is what gave this pie crust the wonderful texture and flake that it had. The taste would have been there no matter what, but that freezing process really helped.